Legacy
by ninjitsu-sage47
Summary: Old legacies are relived or forgotten, and new legacies are born. Next generation fic.
1. Team Failure

**The longest chapter I have ever willingly written in my whole entire life! I hope it's worth it. When writing this, instead of making everything seem like a mirror image of the last generation, I decided to add a little to it, mix it up a y'know? There is no InoShikaCho for example, and some of the new generation are a little... odd... And instead of throwing a bunch of names in your faces, I decided to take the time and try to get you to know my characters more gradually. I have some of the traditional couples, such as Temari/Shikamaru, Neji/Tenten and Sakura/Sasuke. And guess what? Gaara/Hinata! But wait, who is Naruto's wife? You'll have to wait until the next chapter to find out...**

**And just so y'all know. I HATE PINK HAIR so you won't be seeing any of it in my fic. Except on Sakura of course.**

**Declaimer: Like anyone is going to believe that I own Naruto.**

Team Failure

"Yumi get up, It's your big day!" A female voice called up the stairs, the figure that the voice was talking to groaned and rolled over in her bed. What was today?...

The figure suddenly sat upright in bed. It was her graduation day! Today was the day she was to become a ninja! She had waited impatiently for the sands of time to fall to this point! And she had to fight the swift moving river of life to reach and stay at this point! Today was the most youthful of days because it marked a new beginning for her!

"YUMI!"

"Coming Mom!" Yumi called back, leaping excitedly out of bed. The energetic girl ran to her closet and flung it open, inside were a whole row of green jumpsuits and vests. Grabbing one at random as well as a vest, she quickly tore off her pajamas and pulled on her green jumpsuit. Then running over to her drawers, she reached in and pulled out two orange legwarmers, she yanked them on, along with her boots, and picked up two very long white bandages before wrapping them hurriedly around her forearms. She pulled her green vest over her woefully flat chest, and quickly pulled a comb through her short black hair. When she was done, she looked in her mirror to make sure everything was in place. In the end, she looked like the one person she admired most in the world.

Maito Gai

Maito Gai had been training her privately alongside her two friends for the past two years, and Yumi was hoping that he would become her official sensei. Of course, she would go and continue calling him Gai-sensei even if he wasn't. But Yumi couldn't help but feel it wouldn't be worth becoming a shinobi if Gai-sensei wasn't there to witness it.

She ran quickly out the door, grabbing her new kunai pouch and tying it around her leg as she went. Without bothering with the stairs, she jumped over the banister, fell ten feet, and landed with a soft thud. Bounding towards the kitchen, she nearly knocked over her father, who looked as though he had only just woken up. Much to Yumi's dismay. Uchiha Sasuke was not a morning person, and certainly wouldn't be pleased with being almost knocked over by his youngest child.

"Yumi, watch where you're going." He said bluntly, scarcely looking at her. "Sorry father," She said, giving him a quick bow, he looked down at her with something that looked like disgust, "Why do you wear that ridiculous outfit?" He growled, looking pointedly at her jumpsuit. "I like to wear this father," she said quietly, yet firmly.

"Everything in place as usual," he said, looking her over, Yumi waited, wondering where he was getting at with this, and soon found out; "If you put half as much effort into your training as you do into getting ready in the morning, you would actually be getting somewhere in your training." Yumi was stung by this, she always tried her best! Always! So what if she couldn't activate her Sharingun like her older brother could, but she wasn't completely worthless! She was said to have a vast potential in Medical training!

She would have spoken back, gotten into a long speech about how she always tried hard, and how she had the power of youth on her side, and got sent to her room. But she was late. Something Yumi was almost never, she loved being punctual. So she just bowed, and wordlessly went on her way. Though feeling slightly deflated.

Her father considered her a failure, as did most kids her age, her teachers, and even her mother at some point. Her taijutsu was so terrible her father would tell her how embarrassing it was for him, her ninjutsu was feeble, and her genjutsu was indecent.

At least it had been before she met her savior Maito Gai.

_Ten year old Yumi struggled over and over again to conjure up a decent clone. The sound of her classmates laughter ringing in her ears. She couldn't, the best she could come up with was a big blob that scarcely resembled her._

"_Aw look at that, it's an improvement to your face billboard brow," One hurtful comment flew at her. She wished they were physical things, so she could dodge them. But then again, her dodging skills were so poor that it probably wouldn't matter. "You can quit now if you want to Yumi," Iruka-sensei said gently, trying to quell the laughter the ricochetted off the walls of the room._

_Yumi just stood there, the jeers endless stream of heartwretching comments beating down on her, tearing at her. Tears began to form in her eyes, her bottom lip quivered._

"_Crybaby"_

"_Uchiha failure"_

_Uchiha failure..._

_This description was the most accurate out of all of them, and they were all pretty accurate._

_Uchiha failure..._

_Turning, Yumi ran towards the door, clapping her hands over her ears, knocking aside a few laughing students_

_Uchiha failure..._

_She ran as fast as she could down the hall, and out the window at the end, ignoring the shouts from Iruka-sensei, she jumped out, and sprinted full out. It wasn't nearly enough to outdo a full grown ninja. But it got her the necessary distance from the school she hated more then anything._

_She ran across a bridge, and flung herself down at the base of a willow tree, her favorite spot. For a few minutes, she just lay there, sobbing. Why? Why her? What did she do to them? Why did they enjoy making her miserable? Why was she such... a failure? How could she live up to the legacy of her parents? A famous medic nin and one of the strongest, most powerful ninja in Konoha?_

_UCHIHA FAILURE_

_Tears flowed freely, she made no attempt to stop them, seeing as there was no one around that cared. She turned out to be wrong._

"_Why are you crying little girl?" Yumi leapt up in shock and turned around to find a tall green clad figure standing behind her. He walked over to her and crouched to her level. He had a weird bowl shaped haircut, very thick eyebrows, he wore a green jumpsuit, orange legwarmers, and a gentle smile on his face. She couldn't help but trust him._

"_E-ev-everyone a-always tea-teases me" She said between hiccups, "Be-because m-my... I-I..." She didn't know how to say it, she wasn't sure how to describe the pain she felt. He however gave an incredibly bright smile. "What's your name?" He asked, still in his gentle voice. Yumi swallowed hard, and decided to at least answer this one. _

"_Uchiha Yumi" She said, without a stammer. He nodded, "Uchiha huh? I keep hearing that they're all very naturally gifted-" Yumi suddenly let out a sob and hugged her knees, "I'm not! I'm a failure!" She cried, now sobbing harder then ever, "I'm an Uchiha failure! Father says so, everyone in my class says so, and I think even Iruka-sensei thinks so! They all think I'm stupid, ugly and talentless-" She was stopped by a gentle hand on her chin, pushing her head upwards so that she made eye contact with the man who was nice enough to listen, and maybe nice enough to care._

"_I can't deny that you are a failure," he said, causing her heart to crumble, she had hoped that he would be the one person to say otherwise. However, he wasn't finished. "I have heard about you Uchiha Yumi, a failure, but always trying harder, trying to surpass yourself. That is an impressive trait Yumi." She blinked at him, he just complemented her!_

"_Come here," He said, getting up and walking over to the waters edge, she followed hesitantly, when he crouched down at the water's edge, she did the same. "Look, what do you see?" He asked her, indicating that she lean over the water to see what he meant. She did as he bid, and looked. She saw nothing but her reflection, showing her tearstained face and puffy eyes._

"_All I see is water and a reflection of someone who will never become a ninja," She said sadly, reaching over and poking her reflection, causing ripples to form, she watched as the tiny waves moved farther and farther away until they eventually disappeared._

"_That's not what I see," She looked at him in confusion, what did he mean?_

"_I see someone who will eventually surpass all her classmates," He said, making her gap at him in astonishment, "You must see something I can't, you must see something that everyone can't" she said shaking her head, looking back at her reflection, trying to see if she could see what this man saw. She however only saw what she saw before._

"_I do not believe that you are any of the three things that you said you classmates teased you for," The small girl could only continue to stare at him in confusion, "As I said before, I hear that you try hard no matter how futile it may seem, you try hard, that is a strength that many of your classmates probably don't have." He cocked his head and widened his smile, "What you lack is confidence, I hear from Iruka that you have a very sharp mind, though you don't always show it whenever you are given a test. And I don't know why they consider you to be ugly, your not. And I believe that you will someday grow into a beautiful confident young kunoichi."_

_Did he really believe that? She wondered as she looked carefully at his face, looking for any signs that he was being insincere. She found none. Then, feeling better then she felt in a long time, she smiled. "Can... can failures really become good ninja?" She asked, twisting her shirt in her fingers, almost afraid of the answer, though she needn't have worried, "You have no idea," He chuckled, "There are many strong shinobi in Konoha that were once failures," Yumi frowned, "Like who?" She asked, going through her list of all the powerful ninjas she knew, "Well, our beloved Hokage for one-" Yumi gasped, "No way! Naruto is way too strong to be a failure." He just laughed and shook his head, "No, he was, he's not now, but he was. And there's also myself" Yumi couldn't help but gasp again when he mentioned himself._

"_So all I have to do is work hard?" She asked, hope rising in her chest, something that she only rarely experienced. "No," he said, her hopes falling slightly, but not all the way, "You also need to believe in yourself," He said, reaching over and gently ruffled her hair, "It would all be pointless if you work hard, yet never believe in yourself." Yumi fell silent for a moment, before:_

"_Will you show me?"_

"_Show you what Yumi?"_

"_How not to be a failure"_

"_Why?"_

_The question completely threw her off. Why? "I want to prove myself," she said quietly, "I want to prove to my father, everyone in my class, and most of all myself that I'm am NOT a failure!" She jumped up and gave the man a determined look. "But I think I might need some help to do it." The man considered it._

"_Very well, but I have missions, so don't expect me to be here all the time." Yumi however stopped listening after he agreed and flung her arms around his waist. He took a step back and gave a million watt smile complete with a thumbs up. "The Power of Youth is strong with you Yumi! Meet me tomorrow at training site four right after school, okay?" She nodded as he walked away._

_What was the Power of Youth? She thought. Then an even more pressing question hit her._

_What was that man's name?!_

Yumi entered the kitchen, she saw her breakfast on the table, so she jumped on it and wolfed it down, and bolted out the door before her mother had a chance to re-enter the room. Sakura shook her head when she saw her green-clad daughter run out the door at top speed. Always on the move, she's never even still when she's asleep. Strange girl.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Shiko get up" A voice barked through the door. Shiko waited until he heard the footsteps of his grandfather fade before getting up and getting changed. When he was done, he looked in the mirror, and smiled. He dressed so outrageously compared to the rest of his clan, that it was hilarious. Shiko most resembled his father, except he had blue eyes, not that anyone ever saw that seeing as he always wore his dark glasses.

The bug-nin wore the glasses that most members of his clan wore, though the rest of his outfit often caused his father to groan in mock agony whenever he saw it. Like his friend Yumi, he too wore a green jumpsuit, the green vest, with orange leggings. It was a bit of a team costume. Liang pulled it off the best though. Liang was also the only one to wear weights, but then again, neither Shiko nor Yumi specialized in taijutsu. At first, the problem with the outfit was that there weren't enough holes for his beetles to crawl out of. But Gai-sensei fixed that by taking it and having it specially modified, so that there were many small cuts all over the jumpsuit, allowing his bugs to roam freely.

Satisfied with his appearance, he turned around and walked out the door and strode confidently down the hall. He passed several members of his clan, who gave him several side glances. He was the weird mutant of the clan.

"Shiko" The ninja-to-be stopped and turned around, seeing the tired face of his father, Aburame Shino. "Yes dad?" He asked innocently, as though he didn't know what his father was about to lecture him on. "Do you have any idea how strange it is to see an Aburame strut around, much less an Aburame strutting around in _that_" He pointed at his green jumpsuit and orange legwarmers. "No I don't father, and you're never youthful dad" He said, grinning, knowing full well that this always go on his father's nerves.

"What do you mean by that?" Shino asked his son, wondering if he really wanted to know, "Well dad," Shiko said crossing his arms in front of him and seriously examined his father, "For one, you always act as though you have a pole stuck up your butt, and you never embrace the power of youth!" He laughed as his father spluttered. Before turning and leaving, he gave his father a "nice guy" pose , before he sauntered down the hall and through the door that would eventually lead to the kitchens.

Shino shook his head in disbelief. Could his son be _any_ more different from himself?

Shiko happily ate his breakfast, while replaying the moment in his mind over and over again. It felt so good to be so confident. Shiko would never have even tasted this two years ago if it hadn't been for Uchiha Yumi, Rock Liang, and Maito Gai.

_A depressed ten year old Shiko sat sadly on the swing that was tied just outside the academy. Nobody wanted to come near him because they said he reminded him of a rotting corpse. They naturally thought this because, unlike other members of his clan, Shiko couldn't control his bugs for some reason. So they had free reign of his body._

_He sat and watched quietly as the Uchiha, Yumi, was cruelly teased by her fellow classmates. He could get up and walk right over to her, and scare her tormentors off, but she'll probably be scared off as well. While she was a "failure" he was a "freak." Though among his own clan he could be considered a failure. Being unable to control his bugs was more then enough to gain that title._

_An Aburame failure. Yumi, you and I are far more alike then you realize._

_Shiko was tempted to get up and walk over to her, to comfort her. But what if she ran away? He felt tiny little feet of his bugs as they scuttled over his face and down his back. It was because of the constant presence of them that he wasn't ticklish at all. Not that anyone ever tried._

_There were many times when he wanted to jump in and defend her, nobody deserved this treatment. He never did, if he did, she would probably be teased even worse then before. After all, he was the "freak" no one wanted to be defended by a "freak"_

_Like many members of his clan, he learned how to keep his face smooth of emotion, how not to give a single thought away. The Aburame's were a very repressed clan in his option._

_Most kids avoided him, and liked to pretend he didn't exist. They passed him in the halls, whispering to each other, then giggling when he passed. Very few of them actually confronted him about it. Shiko actually thought that the treatment he received was every bit as bad as Yumi's. Except he didn't hear exactly what his tormentors were saying, though he had a rough idea. _

_Another failure in their class was a odd looking boy named Rock Liang, he was every bit as bad as Yumi. Though he wasn't from a powerful clan that expected it's children to all be great warriors. No, Liang was easier off then they were._

_Even though they recognized each other as fellow failures, they rarely spoke to one another._

_Shiko's lack of control didn't stop with his bugs. No, it also extended to his limbs. He sometimes felt that he was the worlds clumsiest person. His father used to say that if Shiko were to walk on air, he would manage to find something to trip over. The young boy felt as though he spent more time on the ground then actually standing up. This was depressing._

_The bell rang. It was time for the day to start._

_He tried to get off the swing. Emphasis on "tried" what happened was that he somehow managed to get his foot caught on the rope, which caused him to do a faceplant right into the ground, and to shatter his glasses. For the fourth time this week, and it was only Wednesday. Several people laughed, but no one made any effort to help him up. That's alright, Shiko was used to it. Shiko managed to trip twice more and knock over smaller student on his way to his classroom._

_When he got his act together and entered class, he saw the class was scapegoating Yumi again. Iruka-sensei was trying to get them to shut up. But it wasn't working. Yumi eventually had enough and ran out the door, crying._

_Shiko watched sadly as she went. Defending her would only make things worse._

_Yumi didn't come back to school that day. Shiko couldn't blame her. He wondered if she would ever come back. He wouldn't._

_She did._

_The very next day, she arrived right on time, as always, Shiko noticed that she was very punctual. But it was so strange! She seemed to be... different. She walked with her head high and a confident bounce in her step. _

_And this was only the beginning._

_Over the next few days, she worked harder then ever, she began to ignore the insult that were flung her direction, and acted as though she knew something the rest of them didn't. Shiko was intrigued, he wanted to know what she knew, how can someone change practically overnight?_

_So, two weeks after Yumi ran out of class, Shiko took a deep breath and followed her a little ways when she was walking home from school. Eventually he summoned his courage and called out to her._

"_Yumi"_

_Yumi turned and looked him in surprise._

_He walked cautiously forward (somehow managing not to trip over his feet), unsure how she would take to him. Shiko felt a little hurt when she took as small step back as he approached. But the fact that she didn't run away was a cause for celebration._

"_Yes?" She asked, looking him over. Shiko stopped when he was a respectable five feet away. When she looked at him with her big green eyes. Shiko realized that he hadn't planned on what to say._

"_Um..." He started, "You're different from before," He said with a vague tone in his voice. Yumi just blinked. "Different? What do you mean?" She crossed her arms and raised her eyebrow. He sighed, "You're a lot more confident now then you were before. How did you do it?" He noted that she seemed to be rather flustered at this question. Until she blurted out, "Why do you want to know?" She asked in an almost challenging voice._

_Shiko considered this for a moment before answering: "I want to know because I want to know" he said simply. She nibbled on her lip for a moment, as though wondering whether or not Shiko was worthy of what she knew._

"_Are you a failure?" She asked suddenly. Shiko raised a thin eyebrow, well he wasn't a prodigy of any sort. "Yes, I guess I am," He said quietly, "And a 'freak' too" They stared at each other for a few minutes, before Yumi smiled._

"_Come with me!" She reached over and grabbed his hand. Making him gasp, no one outside his family ever wanted to go near him, much less touch him. She gripped his hand hard and yanked him alongside her. Unfortunately, this was enough to cause him to trip. She put her hands impatiently on her hips as she waited for him to get back on his feet._

_When he was up, she turned and began to walk swiftly away. He followed._

_They walked someways before Shiko realized that they were heading towards one of the training fields. Why were they going there?_

_He got his answer more or less right away._

"_Yumi! Glad to see you're here, and you brought a friend!" Shiko turned around to see a tall man with enormous bush eyebrows and wearing a green jumpsuit. Yumi gave him a big smile, "Gai-sensei, this is Aburame Shiko, he's like me." Shiko was surprised to hear this, so she did pay attention. Gai gave a million watt smile, "So, you're the infamous Aburame Shiko are you?" Shiko winced, was his failure that well known?_

"_Yes, I guess so," He said in a completely toneless voice. Gai frowned, "What is with the voice?" He asked, raising an furry eyebrow (reminding Shiko of little woolly caterpillars) "It's not a crime to show some emotion! Embrace the Power of Youth!" Shiko blinked, shinobi weren't suppose to show emotion. It was repeated to him over and over so that he wouldn't be able to forget. And what was with this "youth" nonesense?_

"_Gai-sensei, you said it would be nice if we were a traditional team of three, and if Shiko joins us, it would be!" Yumi said, "If he wants to of course," She said quickly, looking at him. Before Shiko could reply, Gai did, "That is a very Youthful idea Yumi!" Be beamed at the two of them, "I have become somewhat like a tutor to both Liang and Yumi, I could do the same for your Youthful self if you like," He said, giving a blinding smile and a thumbs up. Shiko learned later this was called a "Nice Guy" pose._

_Shiko of course, agreed. _

When he was done breakfast, he ran over to the window and jumped out. Damn the doors, it's not like he or is teammates ever used them to enter or exit buildings. Landing lightly on the grass outside the compound, he took off at top speed towards the willow tree where they always meet before going to school. As special as today was, he wasn't about to break that tradition.

He realized that he was the first one here. This was unusual. Yumi was almost frantic about always being on time. She must of mouthed off to her father again. The bug-nin sighed and sat down at the base of the tree. He wasn't going anywhere until they got here.

"Hey Shiko!" A voice called to him from the bridge that crossed a small clear stream. The owner of the rather loud voice was none other then Uzumaki Ichiro, the best friend of Uchiha Shou, Yumi's older brother. "Whatcha doin' here?! Isn't today your graduation?" He asked skidding to a stop in front of the other boy. Shiko nodded, "Yes I know, but I have to wait for Yumi and Liang before I go, it won't be the same otherwise."

He smiled at the older mind-nin, "So what are you doing? Have any missions lately?" Ichiro pouted and shook his head, "No, Ebisu-sensei is punishing the three of us for learning the sexy jutsu," he smirked "The pervert nearly drowned in his own blood when Shou, Nayane, and I were done with him." He laughed so hard he nearly fell over. "Anyway, I gotta go. See ya later!" He waved and sprinted off to meet his teammates.

Just thirty seconds after the blond haired ninja left, Yumi arrived, panting. "Sorry that I'm late Shiko!" Be gasped, "I woke up late, I mean I just woke up, like, seven minutes ago!" Shiko shrugged, "Just as long as you're here, but I wonder what's keeping Liang?"

Yumi laughed, "His dad is probably making him do two hundred pushups for knocking over the sugar or something like that, you know how they're like," She finished in an admiring tone. Rock Lee, Hyuuga Neji, and Hyuuga Tenten were living proof that Gai-sensei was an excellent teacher. The three of them saw Liang's dad often, more often the two Hyuuga. Liang's dad shared their devotion for their sensei.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"DAD WHERE ARE MY WEIGHTS?!" Liang hollered down the hall to where his dad's bedroom was located.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'WHERE ARE MY WEIGHTS?'" His dad hollered back, 'I MEAN 'WHERE ARE MY WEIGHTS?' I CAN'T FIND THEM ANYWHERE!" Liang bellowed, waving his arms frantically, "I'M LATE! WHERE ARE THEY?"

"DID YOU CHECK THE GYM?"

"YES!"

"YOUR CLOSET?"

"YES!"

"THE KITCHEN?"

"..."

"GO CHECK!"

Liang ran down the hall toward the kitchen, wondering why his weights would be in there of all places. But as he poked his head in, he found them immediately, they were sitting in the corner where he had put them the previous night.

"DAD I FOUND THEM!"

"GOOD! SEE YOU AFTER YOU GRADUATE MY SON!"

"BYE DAD, I'M GOING!"

Grinning, Liang, ran over to the open window and did a flip through without touching the frame, he landed gracefully on the gravel right beside his house. "Do you or your father ever speak to each other in anything else other then capital letters?" An annoyed voice called to him from one of the neighboring houses. Liang grinned and shook his head, causing his neighbor to groan.

_Young Liang stood in front of a giant log sticking out of the ground. He was going to hit it two hundred times with his fists._

"_121-122-123-"_

"_Liang!" Liang stopped and turned around, puzzled as Yumi ran towards him, dragging a startled Shiko behind her., "This is Shiko! He's the third member of our team!" The black haired boy grinned. A third member? Awesome! And he was a fellow failure! Aburame Shiko, people didn't want to be around him because of the bugs that constantly scuttled across his face._

"_Shiko, this is Liang!" Liang saluted him and gave him a friendly smile. Liang greatly resembled his father, in more ways then one. Although, unlike his father, Liang wore his hair in a ponytail, and he didn't have the same wide eyes his father had, though their eyebrows were alike hair for hair._

"_Welcome Shiko!" He said, walking over and giving him a light punch on his shoulder, "Welcome to Team Failure" he said with a laugh. "Though we don't plan to be failures for long," Yumi said, "Thanks to Gai-sensei," Liang nodded._

Liang ran at top speed towards their meeting place by the big willow tree. To his dismay, he saw both his teammates waiting for him. They had five minutes to get to the school if they wanted to get there in time to graduate.

They exchanged quick greetings, before turning and sprinting off in the direction of the school. Liang had recently become well known for his incredible speed, and was easily able to pull ahead of his two friends and reach the building before they did. He waited long enough for them to catch up before jumping up and grabbing a branch of the tree that grew right beside the Academy.

Climbing the tree, he reached the classroom window he needed to be at and entered.

"Cutting it pretty close you three," Iruka-sensei remarked as a panting Shiko and Yumi appeared at the window a few moments later. Ignoring the venomous looks they were getting from all the other student's in the class, the three of them walked over to some empty seats.

Liang's excitement was growing as Iruka-sensei explained the rules of the tests they needed to take before they could get a forehead protector with the leaf symbol engraved on it.

_Finally, we approach you our rivals_ Liang thought, _Sabaku Kimiko, Nara Haku, and you Sabaku Arashi of the village hidden in the sand. We will soon meet and we will show you that we are now forces to be reckoned with, Sand Cousins._

**The next chapter will be about the Uzumaki kid and his team. And just so you know, they're about a year older then Shiko and his team. And Kakashi's son and daughter's team is a year older then that, and Jiraiya's son's team is a year older then that... Oh, and the three sand cousins are the same age as Shiko and Co. In later chapters I'll explain how they met new Team-Gai, and how these three talented kids manage to become "rivals" with three Konoha failures. I know some of you would have noticed that Liang's little story was a lot shorter then the other two. This is because his story is pretty much like his father's, and it would be boring for me to re-write it all.**

**There is also one last team that I will keep secret until the time is right. And just a note: Yumi, Shiko are prime examples that Nurture will sometimes prevail over Nature XD**

**Please Review, I don't usually start typing out the next chapter until my first or second review XD**


	2. Team Ebisue

**Okay, an introduction to a new team! As I said before, I wanted to take the time to get you to know each of my characters instead of just throwing their names in your faces. In some of the other next generation fics I read, I happen to get very confused that way. Most of these idea's are my own, but if it bears any resemblance to anyone else's story, then I apologize.**

**Declaimer:** **I don't own Naruto.**

Team Ebisu

"Ichiro, time to get up sweetie!"

Uzumaki Ichiro immediately jumped out of bed at the sound of his mother's voice.

"Coming mom! I'll be up in a minute!"

"Well hurry up, your eggs are getting cold!"

Uzumaki Ichiro gave a wild grin and ran towards his bathroom. He took a quick shower and came out with a towel around his waist. After brushing his teeth, he walked into his room to find that his mother had neatly lain his clothes out for him on his bed. A plain sky blue t-shirt and a pair of black shorts. Both freshly laundered and ironed. He pulled them, and his boots, on and reached for his forehead protector. Which was recently polished (by his mom no doubt) and was smelling as fresh as any of the clothes he was wearing.

He also noticed a large bouquet of flowers sitting on his desk. He smiled at them, Lilies and Daffodils. His favorites. Uzumaki Ino worked in a Flower shop when she wasn't on missions, Ichiro's mother still owned it, and occasionally the thirteen-year-old mind-nin would help. He loved working with is mother, she was fun and he adored everything she did, and listened to everything she said.

This devotion earned him the title "Mama's boy" with his teammates. And many other people too. Though Ichiro rarely let that bother him.

When he was done dressing, he grabbed his dark blue coat and ran upstairs to where his mother had his breakfast waiting.

"Good Morning!" He said happily as he threw himself down at the table. Ino smiled fondly at her son, "And Good morning to you! Did you sleep well?" Ichiro nodded, "Very well mom, you do my sheets everyday, so I always sleep well!" The older mind-nin laughed and walked over to him to give him a hug, "You're such a sweet boy," She gushed.

When Ino and Ichiro were together, you could really pick out the similarities. Ichiro wasn't considered handsome. He was considered "pretty" to his utter irritation. Ichiro had his mothers delicate face and eye shape and color. His hair was a pale shade of blond, just like his mothers, and he had a very slight build. Though his hair defied gravity and was stubbornly spiky, like his fathers, he also had his fathers smile, big and white.

Though what Ichiro knew about his father would spend more time with complete strangers then he did with his own son.

"Did dad spend all night in his office again?" He asked, his voice slightly dull. His mother sent him an anxious look, "Yes he did, but things have been busy for him, with the threat of war and all..." She trailed off when she saw that her son just stared at his eggs as though he had just lost his appetite. She leaned over and gave him another hug, "He loves you Ichiro, don't ever forget that," She said sternly. He looked up at her for a moment. Then smiled.

"Yes mom," He said with a reassuring laugh.

Ino gave a sigh of relief and decided to change the subject. "What are you doing today Ichiro?" She asked.

Ichiro winced.

"Um... uh... Ebisu-sensei is having us do chores all over Konoha, we'll be at it all day." He said quickly, before turning back to his eggs. His mother frowned, "Yes, I almost forgot about," She rapped her son over the head with a wooden spoon, "That was a disgraceful jutsu! I don't know where you learned it but-"

She went on for a few more minutes, then stopped when she saw the utterly dejected look on his face.

"Well, I shouldn't keep you any longer," She said, "Go on" He leapt up and was about to dart out the door when she stopped him, "Just so you know Ichiro, I'm going on a mission tomorrow, so you'll be here alone."

Ichiro was quiet for a moment, there was a shadow over his eyes, "I wouldn't be here alone if dad was around more often, and kept his promises" He ran out before Ino could stop him.

He ran down the hall on down several stairs out of the residents part of the tower and into the more public part. He stopped just outside his fathers door, debating with himself on whether or not he should enter. In the end, he decided to. It wasn't a crime for a son to want to say "Good Morning" to his father after all was it?

He pushed open the door without knocking and peeked in. His father, the Hokage, was leaning over an important looking and very long document on his desk.

"Dad?"

Naruto glanced up and Ichiro wasn't surprised to see that his father had dark rings under his eyes.

_Wow, he's starting to look like the Kazekage what's-his-name_ Ichiro thought, looking at them closely. _Did he even sleep last night?_ It wasn't likely, his father was _very_ devoted to his work, and if something needed to be done, is father would. This devotion also cut into any quality time that the Hokage might have with his son.

"Yes, what is it Ichiro?" He asked, rubbing his face, "I'm very tired, and I still have work that needs to be finished by this afternoon, which hasn't been done yet, so can you make it quick?" Ichiro was stung by this, but he forced a smile and replied with as much a cheerful tone as he could, "I just wanted good morning," He said fiddling with his fingers slightly, something he only did when he was incredibly uncomfortable.

Naruto gave a very tired smile to his son, "And good morning to you to Ichiro," He said warmly, making Ichiro's smile less forced. "Listen Ichiro, I'm sorry for not taking you out for ramen last night like I promised, but I fell asleep, and I didn't wake up in time, how about tonight? I promise I'll make it this time," He gave his son a winning smile that almost made Ichiro believe him.

Ichiro's smile became forced again. _That's what you said yesterday and the hundreds of times before that_ Ichiro thought bitterly. "It's ok dad, I can see you're busy" The bitterness he felt was heard faintly. Naruto frowned, "No, I'll be sure to take you Ichiro, I always try to keep my promises." Ichiro only nodded, suddenly not wanting to continue this conversation.

He didn't have to. The door burst open suddenly when the Hokage's assistant Udon entered swiftly.

"Lord Hokage, a messenger just came in from Suna and they are requesting that-" He stopped short when he realized that Ichiro was in the room as well, "Good morning Ichiro," Udon said, pushing his round glasses further up his nose, "Sorry, am I interrupting something?"

Naruto smiled at him, "I'm just talking to my son Udon, we're done now," He gave Ichiro a smile that he only half-heartedly returned. "See you later dad." He said turning around and darting out the door.

Uzumaki Naruto was the most powerful shinobi in Konoha, hence his title as Hokage. He was greatly respected and admired. Everyone loved him. So much that Ichiro was most known as "The Hokage's son" rather then his actual name. Ichiro had plans to one day be every bit as strong as his father. He wanted to make his own name. He wanted more strength. He wanted more power. And Ichiro had plans on how to get these things.

Ichiro was out of the Hokage's tower (his home) and running towards his teams meeting place, when he spotted a jumpsuit-wearing-figure- sitting underneath a willow tree. Upon closer inspection he realized that this jumpsuit-wearing-figure was actually one of Shou's sister's freaky friends. Aburame Shiko if he remembered correctly.

After a short conversation with him, he wheeled around and ran full out towards their meeting place.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"Shou, it's eight o'clock already! Get up!"

The thirteen year old groaned and turned over in his bed and snored loudly.

"Shou! Get up!"

The black haired boy continued to snore.

"SHOU!!"

The door flew open with a bang and an angry pink haired women marched in, ducking as she avoided a well thrown shuriken.

"I'm up... you don't need to yell... sheesh," Uchiha Shou said with a wide yawn. After a stern lecture from his mother, she left and he managed to get out of bed.

He walked to his bathroom and ran a comb through his hair and brushed his teeth. Though he didn't see the point of doing it before breakfast. Walking down the stairs, he noted that Yumi's door was opened and her room was empty. Not surprising, she usually got up at seven, sometimes six, in the morning! It was hard to believe that they were related.

It was because of this he rarely ate breakfast with the Uchiha Spazz.

He ate his breakfast, got another nagging from his mother (why doesn't she ever nag Yumi? That is SO not fair) and left. Bumping into his dad on the way out. "Training?" He asked sternly, Shou rolled his eyes and nodded. Sasuke scowled, he hated it when Shou acted like what he was: A teenager. Well, he was just going to have to get used to it, he's going to be a teenager for another six or seven years.

With a bow to show his respect to his father, he turned and ran towards his destination. After all, the three of them had to be punished for pulling that Pudding Pudding Jutsu that Konohamaru taught them. It had some _very_ amusing results.

The young sharingan warrior happily remembered the look on Ebisu-sensei's face when he saw three big-breasted women standing before him in revealing (indecent in Ebisu's sensei's words) clothes. The amount of blood that came out of the dude's nose was hilarious. Wonder what he'd do if he found out that each of them knew how to do the sexy jutsu? (with this, Nayane turned into a guy, for the entertainment of whatever girls might be present)

"Hey, whatsyourname" A voice called out behind him. Shou assumed that it was directed at him because he was the only one walking down this alley at the moment. He came to be face to face with a rather wild looking (yet pretty) girl with hazel, almost gold, eyes. Predator eyes. At her heels was a rather large white dog with black ears.

"I have a name you know," He said with an amused smile. She snorted, "Like I care, have you seen Obito anywhere? Or Rin? I can't find either of them." Shou shook his head, "How should I know wh-" She suddenly jumped forwards and poked him hard in the chest, "You either say yes or no or nothing at all," She asked bluntly, "I don't want to listen to anything that comes out of your mouth unless I have to." Shou raised an eyebrow, "Why did you want to talk to me in the first place? Unless you used this as an excuse to talk to me..." He unwisely said. Two seconds later, Shou was on his back, "Don't get above yourself idiot," she snarled. With that, she turned and stalked away with her dog.

Shou sighed and got to his feet. He felt that action was completely uncalled for. She could have just said "Back off" and he would have complied. But then again, Kita preferred the physical approach to the verbal one. Hokage indeed, that'll be the day.

He finally got the Ichiraku Ramen Bar, and found his best friend sitting at counter with a bowl full of ramen in front of him. But he wasn't eating any. Shou thought that this was odd. When he went to go sit next to him, he saw the depressed look on Ichiro's face, he knew at once that whatever was bothering his blond friend had something to do with the Hokage that was his father.

"What's up?" He asked, knowing the answer, but Ichiro needed to say it out loud to have any effect. The mind-nin sighed, "Dad promised me that he would take me out tonight," he said quietly, "But I don't think he will get around to it." Shou made his order, and while he waited, he made his reply; "I know your dad is being a bastard right now, but he means well doesn't he? My dad never offers to take me out anywhere, unless it has something to do with training. Then he's flexible."

His bowl arrived, (given to him by the pretty twelve year old Moriko, daughter of Ayame) and he was halfway through when their third teammate arrived. Hyuuga Nayane looked like she was in a good mood. Then again, Nayane was a morning person.

"Hey Shou," She said cheerfully, "How's Yumi the Uchiha spazz? Isn't her graduation test today?" Shou sighed, "Yeah, according to mom, she was late. Which for Yumi means that she woke up at seven thirty instead of seven or whatever." Shou always found Yumi's obsession with punctuality embarrassing. Then again, there wasn't much that Yumi did that _didn't_ make Shou want to sink into the ground.

There was how she dressed (spandex with orange leg warmers? Have mercy!) her attitude (Obsession with youth can't be healthy) her continues poses (what the hell is up with the "Nice Guy" pose?!) her friends (Rock Liang the loser, and Aburame Shiko the freak) and most of all her sensei (The dude must be in his mid or late forties, why can't he act his age? And that Yumi worshipped the weirdo like he was some kind of god was a cause for concern. It wasn't healthy either.) Despite this, Shou didn't hate her. He was just embarrassed by her. He had his brotherly moments.

To think that two years ago, Yumi was almost normal. Then again two years ago, Yumi was laughed at for her feeble attempts at... everything. Their dad was almost disgusted with her. Even mom, as sympathetic as she was, was a little disappointed. Shou was the favorite child. Shou received the proud smiles from both his parents.

Nayane gave a soft laugh, "Well, there's no harm in punctuality. Speaking of which, where is our beloved sensei? He should be here by now, he's never-" She was cut off by the arrival of their Ebisu-sensei.

"Well, I'm glad to see you're here," He said in his usual uppity voice, "Now, as I said yesterday, today the three of you are going to do chores around Konoha as a punishment for that vulgar and disgraceful jutsu that you showed off yesterday," He treated them with a stern glare and adjusted his glasses, "The first thing your going to do is clean the faces of our dearly departed Hokage's-" He broke off when the three of them began to protest, "It's fitting, seeing as someone seemed to have spoiled the mountain with a whole warehouse supply of paint last night." He raised an eyebrow at them, while the mischievous trio tried their best to look innocent.

oooooooooooooooo

"This sucks" Ichiro moaned as he tried to scrub an especially stubborn smug of paint off the Fifth Hokage's nose with a rag.

"Then we shouldn't have done it," Nayane said bluntly, using a large brush to clean the mustache she had put on the fifth's face.

"It was fun though." Shou said laughing, a right over her as he tried to scrub the red paint out of the Fifth Hokage's eyes.

All six faces on the mountain were nicely covered with spectacular designs that should be admired, seeing as they _had_ put a lot of hard work into. After all, they gathered the paint, planned the designs, and snuck out, painted the whole mountain, and snuck back in. All without getting caught. It wasn't easy in Nayane's case. It is not a simple thing to sneak out of the Hyuuga compound. Good thing they have allies.

Ichiro had put special attention to the Sixth's face. It was probably his way of getting back at him for all that time they didn't spend together. The current Hokage now had a orange uni-brow, green pimples, purple eyes, red lipstick, and black teeth. Kinda made Shou wish that _his_ father's face was on the mountain.

"SHOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!! WEEEEE PASSSEEEDDD!" A deafening scream erupted right in his ear. Shou let out a yelp as he accidentally knocked over his bucket full of dirty water. It fell, landing right on top of Nayane, who also yelped and accidentally cut two of the ropes on her platform. The end fell, and the sudden jerking snapped the other two ropes, causing the platform to fall. Luckily Nayane was a talented ninja with good reflexes and was able to leap off onto the mountain where she stuck.

The platform however fell a few dozen feet to the ground and smashed into a million pieces. One particularly large chunk of wood flew out when it made impact with the ground and whacked one Inuzuka Kiba in the back of the head, effectively knocking him out. The bucket that Nayane had been using also flew out upon impact and landed on a ramen worker carrying a stack of hot orders of ramen. The ramen worker let out a loud shout as he toppled forward, the five orders, stacked one on top of the other, flew out of his hands and landed on a _very_ startled Inuzuka Hana who let out a shriek as she was covered in _very_ hot noodles. She stumbled backwards and tripped over a cat and fell into a basket of tomatoes that happen to be there. Inuzuka Kita was howling in laughter at the sight of her Aunt with her butt stuck in a tomato basket. She received a large tomato in the face.

Kita scowled and grabbed a apple from a stand and chucked it at her Aunt, who managed to dived out of the way and caused the apple to hit a Inuzuka Tsume in the knees. Tsume immediately charged at a terrified Kita, chasing her and her dog Amaterasu yowling down the street. Who collided with the team of Genin who were assigned to capture the cat that Hana had tripped over. The Kuniouchi of the team staggered at the impact and slammed into a startled Hatake Rin, who was just wondering around minding her own business. The two of them together landed in a large mud puddle.

The two boys weren't so lucky and flew into the fence of a bull pen. Weakening it. It was unfortunate that one of the boys were wearing all red. The bulls let out a enraged roar and charged at the fence, breaking it. Screams could be heard as people, civiallians and ninja alike, dived out of the way of the angry bulls, all six were still chasing the genin.

And just when they were on the verge of impaling the crying boy, a wall of sand rose up. The bulls didn't slow down in time, one by one they slammed into the impenetrable wall with loud and sickening cracks. When the bulls were unconscious, the wall receded, hissing as it did so, and rushed back into the ground.

Two seventeen-year old girls stood a few feet away from the uncouncious bulls, a red head with pale eyes, and a pale skinned girl with golden eyes.

"Not an everyday occurrence is it Kusanada?"

"No, it was entertaining it its own way. Do you think that kid's alright?"

"I'm sure he'll live"

"Heh"

ooooooooooooooooo

"It's sure a good thing you got out of the way Nayane, or something really bad would have happened," Shou said, the other five genin nodded in agreement.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Around six o'clock that morning, Hyuuga Nayane was already up and sparring with her father. She spent an hour with him, and an hour with her mother. At eight, after her cool down, she went to the dinning room to have a breakfast of fruit, vegetables, and green tea, with her father. Usually, they chatted about her training. Though right now they were having their ongoing argument about her choice of clothing.

"Oh really dad! They're just short shorts, they're not going to hurt anyone."

"They will if I see any young men checking out my daughter in them! And that T-shirt is far to small, I can see your belly button!"

"That's the point dad"

"It's impractical,"

"What if I decided on piercings?"

"Piercings?!"

"For my belly button..."

"I would not allow it!"

"Piercings wouldn't kill anyone."

"You're missing my point!"

"And what is your point?"

"My point is, your clothes are far to-"

"Oh Neji, your so old fashioned"

Hyuuga Neji looked up at his wife with an irritated look in his pale eyes. "What so old fashioned about wanting my daughter to cover up Tenten?" he asked with a frustrated sigh. Tenten smiled and sat down beside her daughter, "I think Nayane is just proud to be a women," She put an arm around her daughter, Nayane nodded, "And Nayane can handle herself if any boy tried to take advantage of her. She is a Hyuuga after all."

Neji tried to find a way around this logic, "Well, I'm still her father, and I say she should wear someth-"

"I'm late!" Nayane suddenly cried as she leapt up and ran towards the door, grabbing her quiver of arrows and her large long bow on her way. "Bye mom! Bye dad! See you later." And she was gone.

ooooooooooooooooo

By the end of the day, the sun was setting, the three of them trudged down the street. Wet, dirty, smelly (dang outhouses) and miserable. "Ugh, glad that's over with," Nayane moaned, thinking of the whole day of training that they lost. Ichiro nodded, "Helping bathe old wrinkly people? Why can't all old people be like Lord Jiraiya and Lady Tsunade? _They_ don't need our help to bath them"

"Thank Kami," Was all an exhausted Shou could manage.

"So was it worth it to learn those perverted jutsu off of Konohamaru?" Nayane asked her friends.

_Inner Nayane: Well duh! Just imagine the things I can do with that jutsu! Neither mom nor dad will be pleased by it, that's why it's perfect!_

"After all, out parents will probably have a heart attack if they were to see it, and it isn't exactly proper," Shou gave a devilish grin, "Of course it isn't, that's why it's an awesome jutsu! Even though we got punished for it, the look on Ebisu-sensei's face, bloody nose and all, was priceless!"

Ichiro and Nayane roared with laughter as they too remembered the theatrical nose bleed their sensei sprouted. "And it'll give us an edge in battles won't it? Those poor souls won't know what hit them," Ichiro chortled.

"To bad we're never surrounded by beautiful women," Shou said enviously, causing Nayane to splutter in indignation. "Yeah," Ichiro unwisely said, "The pretty ones don't want to hang around us, we have to do a sexy jutsu in order to see-"

Nayane had stopped walking and was staring at the back of the two boys heads in disbelief.

_Inner Nayane: They can't honestly be serious!_

A plan of revenge suddenly sprouted in her mind, causing an evil grin to cross her pretty face. (Nayane actually resembled her father more then her mother) as she walked forward and dealt her two teammates with a blow to the back of their heads.

WHAM

They sprawled forwards and landed hard on their face. Two lumps forming on the back of their heads where their lone female member had struck.

"Oww" Shou whined, rubbing his sore spot with tears of pain forming on the corner of his eyes.

"What was _that_ for?!" Ichiro cried, also with tears in his eyes.

Nayane ignored both comments and walked forwards through the space between them. Leaning over, she grabbed them both by the backs of their shirts and hoisted them to their feet.

"Come with me" She said with such a calm voice that both boys began to tremble in fear. They both started to make plans on how to escape. Last time Nayane was like this, they found themselves in the bottom of an outhouse.

"Run, and I'll come after you," She said without turning around. This quashed all plans of escape, and both boys nervously followed. After all, you can't run from someone who has the byakugan. And arrows.

Timidly, the two of them followed the Hyuuga until they came to the hotsprings. Nayane saw both boys exchange nervous glances with one another. Good, they haven't figured out her plans yet. Not surprising, seeing as she doubted that they even knew what started her off in the first place. Boneheads.

"Here we go, she said, stopping in front of one of the bathhouse doors. The two terrified boys gathered behind her, "But that's the women's side," Shou said in confusion. Nayane was silent for a moment while she checked inside with her bloodline limit, satisfied with what was inside, she answered his question.

"Exactly." Nayane turned towards them, and grabbed them by their fronts, then dragged them to the doors. "You said you wanted to be surrounded by beautiful women," Nayane said with her calm voice. It was then that both boys realized their mistake.

"Wait Nayane! We weren't counting you!"

"Yeah, we think your pretty!"

_Inner Nayane: Too little to late_

"Well, here you GO!" She kicked open the doors and threw both boys in, listening to their screams of shock as they plunged into hot water, accompanied by the startles shrieks of the fifteen women present.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Two boys, who were sitting on a nearby roof, winced as they watched the entire scene through the telescopes they were both holding. Both boys bore signs of recent nosebleeds.

"Oh, that is just cold blooded," the seventeen year old snow haired boy remarked to his best friend.

The sixteen-year old silver haired boy, who had his mask down, nodded, "Poor souls, should we help them Nawaki?"

The white haired boy shook his head, "Nah, do I look suicidal to you Obito?"

"Good point, it's much more fun to watch anyway."

"By the way, what would your sister do if she found out what you're using her telescope for?"

"It's better for my mental health if I didn't think about that."

The white haired boy spent a moment examining his notes, "I think we have enough for today anyway." The silver haired boy nodded as he flipped through his sketch book full of busty women. "I agree"

"OBITO!!"

"Aw shit"

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"Gai-sensei! We passed the Graduation test!" Yumi and Liang shouted excitedly together. Shiko smiled, though remained quiet. Gai however, decided to more then make up for the bug-nin's silence.

"THAT'S IS MAGNIFICENT MY BUDDING NINJA!" He cried, tears streaming down his face, "I always thought that the flames of youth always shone strong within you three! It did not cross my mind for a minute that you would fail!" He leaned over and somehow managed to hug all three of them, tightly, at the same time, "We could not have done it without you Gai-sensei!" Yumi cried, tears also in her eyes.

"Yosh! You are the light that shone in our darkness Gai-sensei!" Liang cried, now hugging their sensei. Not to be outdone, Shiko joined, "Yes Gai-sensei, we are on our way to becoming splendid ninja! We have overcome our first major obstacle! We are in the springtime of our youth and posses the will of fire, we will not fail." He joined in the youthful hugging.

"And now you three," Gai said, wiping his eyes, "I have a very important announcement for you," The three of them immediately leapt back and stood at attention. He gave them a fond smile, "It was decided, that I will continue to be your youthful sensei!" The three of them let out cries of joy and jumped around and danced happily. Shiko wondered what his father would say if he saw this "outrageous" display of emotion. Then Shiko decided that he was far past caring.

"Now-" Gai tried to speak, but the three of them were to busy dancing around in joy to pay attention. "Now-" he started, and failed, again. One of Gai's massive eyebrow twitched.

WHAM! Shiko wheeled backwards as he felt a fist collide with his cheek

WHAM! Yumi fell sideways as she was hit in the forehead.

WHAM! Liang did a backwards summersault as he was hit in the chin.

"Listen up you three!" Gai growled. The stood at attention again, each with a part of the face that was slightly swollen, and saluted him. "Forgive us sensei, we are eager for you to impart your wisdom on to us!" The chanted together.

"Ok, now I want you three to meet me at our usual spot six in the morning tomorrow" he said, "Anyone who is late, even if it's by a minute, will get two hundred pushups, understood?"

"Yes Gai-sensei!"

"Training will be twice as hard as it was before, seeing as now you can go on missions, understood?"

"Yes Gai-sensei!"

"Good, now you should go home, I'm guessing that you have some youthful celebrating to do with your families?"

All three of them nodded.

"Good! I'll see you tomorrow! Run into the sunset my youthful students!" He cried, pointing dramtically at the sky, even though it was still midday.

"Yes Gai-sensei!"

The other two turned and darted off towards their home. Shiko however stayed behind. He sat down at the foot of the large willow and stared out at the pond, deep in thought. He failed to notice that his sensei hadn't actually left yet.

"What are you thinking about Shiko?" Gai asked, walking over and sitting next to him. Shiko jumped slightly and looked sheepishly up at the older ninja, "Forgive me Gai-sensei," He mumbled, "I thought you left already."

Gai chuckled, "I would have if I had not noticed that one of my students had not run off also," Shiko was silent for a moment, "Well... Gai-sensei" he said slowly, "For some reason, I cannot believe that I had got this far, when I think back to what I was. During that time, I had thought that I would never become a ninja. If it wasn't for you, Liang, and Yumi, I would have given up all hope in myself. Getting to this point was so hard, what is there to come? My challenges will be bigger, and now that we are going to go on missions, it will be harder to protect my team, especially if we're fighting other ninja. I did promise to protect them after all, and I will, with my life if that's what it takes." After this speech, he fell silent. Out of the four of them, you could call Shiko "the silent one"

"Very noble Shiko, very noble indeed. You are a fine team leader," He gave his trademark smile, "And the point of our team is to support each other, I'm sure Yumi and Liang feel the same way about you as you do about them. And as a ninja, you will be faced with much danger and many challenges, and I'll be there to help fight the dangers and to watch you overcome your obstacles." The young bug-nin looked up and saw a completely confident and sincere smile on his idol's face.

"Thank you Gai-sensei"

The two of them stood up, "I've got to go meet up with Shizune, I'll see you tomorrow," Gai said cheerfully before running off. Shiko watched as his sensei ran off at a speed with enough speed to kick up an enormous cloud of dust, before turning and walking towards his own compound.

_I wonder if there is such thing as a ninja with a simple life?_ He thought for no reason whatsoever.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Naruto sighed and ran a weary hand through his yellow spiked hair, before looking at the clock on his wall. Something at the back of his mind told him that he was forgetting something. What was it?

"Aw crap!" He yelped, it was ten o'clock, he was suppose to take Ichiro out for dinner, just father and son, at six. He got distracted by a very long and rather boring document that needed his immediate attention. When he first sat down at it, it was five thirty, he spent an hour reading it, completely forgetting about other arrangements he made that evening. This had been about their wavering alliance with Kumo after all.

_This official work would be a lot less complicating if I didn't have to read each and every document and search for loopholes of any kind_ Naruto thought grumpily. When he got through the reading parts, he usually had a debate with Udon, and occasionally who ever happened to be there at the time. Whether it be Sasuke, Neji, Sakura, Tsunade ect...

Naruto often wished that Shikamaru still lived in Konoha, but he was a sand ninja now. He was in the Sand Council instead of the Leaf. Lucky bastards.

Standing up, Naruto quickly hurried out the door, leaving an almost finished document on his desk, he'll deal with it in the morning, and ran swiftly down the hallway. Forgetting, again, his dignity as a Hokage.

He swiftly opened the door to his residence. All the lights were off except the a lamp in the living room, where he found his wife curled comfortably on the couch reading one of her mystery novels. Ino looked up when he entered.

"Naruto!" She gasped, standing up and giving him a kiss, "I'm glad your home." Naruto kissed her back, "Where's Ichiro?" He asked. Naruto knew at once that something was up, Ino suddenly didn't want to meet his gaze. "He's in bed," She said hesitantly, "He's upset, Naruto, and angry. He was sitting here for hours, waiting for you to walk down that hall. He refused when I offered to go down myself and remind you. Just an hour ago he had enough and ran in his room." She met his eyes now, her expression sad, "I know you mean well Naruto, but you should spend more time with him."

Naruto was completely shocked by this, "I'm sorry Ino," He said sincerely, "But being Hokage means making some sacrifices-" He stopped realizing that he said it completely wrong. Complete confirmation came when Ino's eyes went from sad, to sheer rage.

"So our son, _your_ son is one of those sacrifices!?" She cried, blazing up immediately. Naruto cringed. While her temper wasn't anywhere near the same as Sakura's, it was defiantly something to be feared, "I understand that being Hokage is important, but the Third was able to make time for his family, why can't you?" She was crying now, "I never see you anymore! Neither does Ichiro! I swear you know nothing about him!"

Naruto thought that this was a little unfair, "Of course I know stuff about him," he argued, "I know who his sensei is, his progression, I get daily reports-" Ino interrupted, "Only what you get as a Hokage! You don't-" Naruto's own anger was blazing at this point, when he spoke, his voice rose, "Thats not fair! I'm trying to prevent a war! It's selfish for Ichiro to think-" He was stopped as he was struck hard on the left cheek, "DON'T YOU DARE CALL HIM SELFISH!" She shrieked.

"I'M DOING THE BEST I CAN!" He had enough, "I'M SORRY I DON'T HAVE ENOUGH TIME TO ARRANGE FLOWERS LIKE YOU DO! BUT I HAVE IMPORTANT WORK THAT NEEDS TO BE DONE!" Ino's eyes widened, "HOW DARE YOU! JUST- HOW DARE YOU!" She raised her hand and attempted to strike him again. Naruto however blocked it. "AND YOU KNOW WHAT-"

"Mom? Dad?"

Both froze, and turned around to see their son standing in the doorway, his face ninja-blank. Ino's anger began to withdraw, leaving her feeling ashamed about forgetting that Ichiro was still in the house, "We're just having a little... disagreement," She said, pulling her hand out of her husband's grip. The ninja-blank mask fell, and there were tears running down Ichiro's face.

Before either of them could do anything, he ran to the window and jumped out onto the roof.

"Ichiro!" Naruto called, running over to the window, watching the dark figure of his son disappear over the rooftops.

**I hope I did better at doing Gai-dialog this time then I did last. It's not easy to do Gai speech. For me anyway. Anyway, I hope you people liked my characters, Ichiro, Nayane, and Shou, and I had fun doing Nayane's argument with Neji about her clothes. I've heard friends be lectured about the same things by their parents. I know I portrayed Naruto differently then others had, but being Hokage is a very busy job, and since he spent most of his life fighting to be in that position, I think that he'd be very devoted to it. He doesn't mean to neglect his son, I bet it happens every so often in real life, and he does always intend to keep his promises. But that's life, everything doesn't always work out the way we want it. The "Pudding Pudding no Jutsu" was something I picked up off of one of the Naruto fillers. As well as Udon, one of Konohamaru friends, who I thought would be a better assistant then the other two. And... hmmm... what else? I made mentions of some of my other characters in the story. And I'll be sure to explain them soon. I bet you know by now who the two perves on the roof top spawned from? lol**

**Oh, and I absolutely SUCK at heart to heart! I don't know why I even bothered -starts sobbing- Oh, and I'm sick of people always asuming that Gai is gay (not that I don't enjoy a good kakashi/gai yaoi every now and then...) so there will be Gai/Shizune in this fic.**

**Please Review**


	3. Team Shino

**Another looong chapter!**

**Declaimer: I only own what I created.**

Team Shino

Hatake Rin was up just before the sun, and was at her team's training field when it rose.

She viciously kicked at tree. Twenty-five green leaves fell. Rin put her hand on her long sword, and waited until every leaf was eye level before whipping it soundlessly out of it's sheath and slicing the air, her katana making small whistling noises as they sliced each leaf neatly in half. Twenty- four leaves she had eliminated, the final leaf was dangerously near the ground. Putting her sword away and grabbing her smaller sword took the same amount of time as it would have for her brother to move his hand.

The last leaf she sliced in half mere inches from the ground.

She straightened and sighed, she allowed the total focus she had to waver, and she looked around at the new sunrise as it illuminated the grounds in a light golden glow. She looked down at her short sword. It had belonged to her grandfather, given to her by her father. She was told about the "White Fang of Konoha" by her father in slow, halting tones.

Rin, like her twin brother, had short silver hair and wore Jonin vests with black pants (despite the fact that Obito wasn't a Jonin), both had startling blue eyes they got from their mother that their father rarely spoke about, they both had their fathers face, though nobody but their family knew that because both wore masks much like their father did.

That was how they were alike, physically, they looked like male/female versions of one another. You couldn't tell them apart at first glance, but it's easy to knew who is who once you realize that Rin has a slightly curvy figure, and Obito, her brother, obviously didn't.

Their incredible differences came sharply to light, though, when you got to know them. Rin was upright and a rigid follower of rules and regulations. Obito was lazy, late for everything, and was a pervert through and through. Though she wouldn't expect anything else considering the people, or rather person, he hung out with.

"Prince Nawaki" was a year older then they were, and Rin can't say that she liked him very much. Sure he was very good looking and undeniably powerful (he and his team were dubbed the honorary "Prodigal Three") as well as wealthy and whatever other things shallow girls like to go for. But she knew him as someone that encouraged her brother's pervyness, and who joined him in teasing her about her rigidness.

What annoyed her most about her brother was that people referred to him as the "Oracle" which was ridiculous. Yes, every now and then he would have visions, and his accuracy with his tarot cards were seconded to none in Konoha, but he has yet to make any prophecy of any kind.

"Up early as always" Rin jumped and turned around to face her sensei, the owner of the calm, even voice. "Good morning Shino-sensei" She said, bowing respectfully. Shino gave a tiny smile, "Such formalities as unnecessary, we've known each other for the past four years," he said, walking up to her with his hands in his pockets, "Forgive me sensei," Rin said, resisting the urge to bow again.

Rin liked how her sensei was always calm and in control of himself, she also liked how he was rather handsome without his glasses and his vest covering the bottom half of his face. It always amazed her that his son, Shiko, was the complete opposite of his father. She disapproved of his outrageous actions and that ridiculous jumpsuit he chose to wear. Rin had met Maito Gai and actually went on a mission with him. She could not help but admire his skills in taijutsu, even if he was far past his prime. Though she found it odd that his three students would strive hard to be just like him. What brainwashing methods did he use?

The young swords mistress turned her attention back to her sensei, "I have just completed the warm up stage of my training, would you join me in a spar?" He didn't say anything, he took a step back and resumed a battle pose. Rin took a deep breath and smoothly gathered her razor sharp focus she had learned after years of kenjutsu.

Rin suspected that she was Shino's favorite student, Kita was hot headed and sometimes hard to handle, Obito was often an hour late for training, if he ever came at all, and always came up with half baked excuses on why. Honestly, if you believed everything he said, you'd think that there was a old hag lurking around every corner of Konoha. _Helping an old lady cross the street_ what kind of morons did he think they were?

The two of them sparred for about ten minutes before the other kunoichi of their team appeared. It was rare for two kunoichi to be on a team with one male, it is far more commonly the opposite.

"'Morning," She said, leaping down from the tree she and her large nin-dog Amaterasu was in and landed about ten feet away from Rin. Kita was pretty in her own right, with her almost golden eyes, elegant face, and wild black hair that suited her very well, but because of her overpowering personality, most males of Konoha usually avoided her. The few brave ones that think they can handle her are quite often rebuked by none other then Kita's father, Inuzuka Kiba. Dates were non-existent for her, and she had expressed once or twice that she would like to know what one was like.

There were probably only three males in Konoha that Rin knew that were almost unaffected by her fierceness, their sensei, her lackadaisical brother, and Prince Nawaki. Surprisingly, Nawaki, being a "ladies man" showed absolutely no interest in Kita, and often avoided flirting with her. This actually confused Rin, she knew that he often considered getting difficult girls to go out with him a challenge, and Kita most definitely was considered "difficult."

As suspicious as this sounded, Rin wasn't about to go through the effort of solving this particular mystery.

"So how is our future Hokage this morning?" Rin asked, her voice dripping in sarcasm. Kita scowled, "You make it sound like my goal in unattainable," She growled, walking forwards till there was only three feet separating them, her gold eyes challenging her.

_Inner Rin: Glad to._

"I don't know how you got it in your head that you can become Hokage," Rin said disdainfully, "it is very admirable that you want to put another women's face on that mountain, It's sad that the Kage's are woefully lacking in our own sex, but you do not have the right pedigree, in case you haven't noticed, only women with the right bloodline have a chance of becoming a Lady Kage. The Inuzuka clan, admirable as they are in the art of tracking, are not of a "Royal" line. I believe that our well-bred Prince Nawaki is being considered most likely to be future Hokage, being... talented... and the decendant of both the first and second Hokage."

Rin watched as Kita's eyes narrow in determination, she doubted very much that any of her words would be able to sway her in any way. She hoped that the Dog-nin would listen to reason, because, despite the differences in their personalities, they were good friends and Rin only wanted Kita to stop persueing a hopeless dream. She feared the pain her friend would feel if she never reached her goal.

Kita was about to snarl at Rin when their sensei, who saw a long and fierce debate (fight) if he didn't put an end to it.

"That's enough you to," he said, he voice sharp, "We will continue our training. I somehow doubt that Obito will be joining us today." Rin scowled. Her lazy, good-for-nothing, over-lucky perverted brother sometimes didn't even make it to practice, even when they were genin.

"He'll probably still be sleeping when I get home," she sighed, Shino nodded, "In the meantime, I'd like to see you two spar using taijutsu, there are always some improvements that could be made..."

"By the way sensei, Rin," Kita said casually, "Have you noticed that the mountainside happen to be a bit more... colorful... then it usually is?"

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Around seven the Rin and her Sensei (Kita stalked off with Amaterasu to do some more training of her own) made their was towards their favorite restaurant. The workers there knew them very well and had their favorites ready for them when they entered.

"Thank you," Rin said, as formal as ever, when they retrieved their food. She and her sensei walked over to their table in the corner (conveniently in the shadows) to eat. Rin pulled down her mask and began to eat quickly, in case there was any sudden arrivals. Shino ate considerably slower, but still faster then others. After all, he covered half of his face too.

When she was done, Rin glanced at her sensei. He had pulled his high collar to eat his rice.

_Inner Rin: I wish he would take off his glasses too, he is sooo h-_

Rin coughed suddenly and took a deep drink of her green tea, using her hand to cover the faint blush marks on both her cheeks. "Are you alright?" Shino asked, she lowered the cup slightly to see her sensei looking at her with some concern (at least she thought it was concern, she couldn't tell with those glasses.) "No sensei, I just choked a little, that's all," She said, keeping her voice completely stotic.

_Inner Rin: Liar_

When her tea was drunk, she quickly covered her face with her mask, and allowed her blue eyes to travel over Aburame Shino's face once more before he pulled his collar up, also covering his face.

_Inner Rin: How can he still be single?_

Rin angrily squashed her inner voice. Honestly, what was the point of it? She wished it would stay quiet. It would make life would be so much easier.

"I have to go Shino-sensei," Rin said bowing, "I must go home and wake my brother, I doubt he has even considered joining the land of the living yet." Shino chuckled, making her traitoress heart skip slightly, "Yes, go do that, when you get him up tell him I'll be at the Hokage's office, there's some business I want to talk to with Naruto." Rin nodded, "Yes sir," She bowed again and then left.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Rin entered her home and was on her way of marching up the stairs when she came face to face with her father. "Well, hey there Minime number two," He said in the same lazy drawl that Obito spoke in, "What are you doing?" Rin sighed. She hated being referred to as "minime number two."

"Father, how many times have I told you not to call me that?" She asked irratably. He shrugged, "Hmm... this month?" He asked, pretending to think, "One hundred and fifty two I believe." He gave her a smirk behind his mask, "By the way, Minime number one hasn't quite woken up yet." Kakashi then pulled out his perverted book (a new Itcha Itcha series) and began to wonder off.

"Shouldn't you be somewhere right now?" Rin asked, looking at the clock with a sigh. It was a little past eight right now, and her father was suppose to be discussing some business with the Hokage.

He shrugged, "If I go now, I'd be on time, and if that were to happen we would be without a Hokage as he might die of a heart attack." Rin only snorted and crossed her arms. He decided to change the subject. "So, what were you up to before you entered?" He asked.

_Inner Rin: Admiring my sensei_

"Training," she said curtly, turning towards the stairs.

When she reached the door that lead to the room that belonged to her perverted brother, reached up and knocked hard on the door.

"Obito. Up. Now." She yelled, continued to beat the door with her fist.

"Alright, don't break the fucking door." Came a reply. Rin winced at his course language. "Language Obito!" She snarled, giving the door a final knock before turning and heading down the hall to the bathroom. When she came back, she found him gone. Big surprise.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

All Rin wanted was to go to the market so that she could run some errands for her household (both male occupents where far to lazy to consider going out for grocieries). She didn't expect to see her best friend flying past her with an angry Inuzuka Tsume hot on her tail, she didn't expect to have a genin fly into her and toss her into the mud, and she didn't expect to be nearly trampled by six rampaging bulls.

She went home, took a shower, then decided to go to the hotspring for a little bit.

She didn't expect a Hyuuga, an Uchiha and a Uzumaki to be there.

Luckily, she was only on the verge of entering the changing rooms when she saw Hyuuga Nayane, a fairly even tempered girl, storm past with Uchiha Shou and Uzumaki Ichiro in tow. They looked afraid.

And as it turned out, they had a right to be. Rin watched in facination as the Hyuuga kicked open the doors to the womens bath, and actually _threw_ the two fools into the room. She could not help but wonder what they did to piss her off like that.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Obito liked to sleep. It was unfortunate for him that he had two teammates that didn't.

"Obito. Up. Now" His sisters irritated voice called through the locked door as she pounded hard on it.

_I hate life, especially in the morning,_ he thought, sitting up slowly, yawning and stretching.

"Alright, don't break the fucking door," He called back to his twin with his usual drawl.

"Language Obito!"

"Whatever"

He didn't bother with the clothes in his closet, the ones on the floor were still perfectly clean. He just didn't bother to put them away.

He heard his sister, Rin, walk down the hall, away from his room. This was key.

Fully dressed in his chunnin clothes (Rin was a Jonin, Shino-sensei was far more keen on recomending her then Kita or Obito), he unlocked his door, (he didn't want his sister to break it down.) and walked over to the window, not before grabbing his bag though. Unlocking it, he leapt out onto the next rooftop and ran full speed towards the house that belongs to his best friend. Which happen to be in the wealthier parts of Konoha.

Stopping outside the large and expensive looking mansion, he strolled over to the door and knocked. Almost immediately the door opened and a busty blond women who looked to be in her forties (though Obito knew that she was considerably older.) answered.

"Is the revered Prince up yet" He asked mildly, casually walking past the sannin as though he lived there. Tsunade sighed, this wasn't unexpected. "Not quite, why are you here so early? It's only eight." Obito shrugged, "Nawaki and I have some plans for today, and I wanted to get away from my bossy sister" Tsunade looked for a moment like she wanted to ask what their plans were. Then decided, upon reflection, that she was better off not knowing.

"Anyway, I should be off, I have a surgery to complete today," The medic-nin said, sweeping past Obito she closed the door, leaving Obito alone in the hallway. The silver haired ninja had been here so many times that he knew this house better then his own. He actually spent a considerable amount of time here, though he always thought it benefited his sister more if he didn't explain to her _what_ he was doing.

He ambled towards the stairs and began the climb to Nawaki's third floor room. When he got there he strolled in without knocking and stopped at the foot of the older ninja's bed. He had his mask pulled down as he usually did at this point.

Sun shone weakly through the window, it's golden rays landing on the white-haired figure that lay sleeping peacefully in his bed.

Nawaki was considered very handsome by just about every girl in Konoha. With his white hair and tanned skin, he was almost an exact replica of his father. Nawaki used his good looks and charm to enchant as many women (some younger, some older) as he could. Sometimes Obito couldn't help but feel jealous when he saw Toad ninja flirting with a good looking girl. He made it look so easy. Though sometimes the jealousy wasn't always for Nawaki.

"Oink?"

Obito gave a soft laugh as Nawaki's pet pig Tai-Tai jumped off his bed and waddled over to him. Kneeling down on one knee, Obito scooped the little pink pig up and held him in his arms. Tai-Tai didn't wear beads around his neck like Ton-Ton, instead he wore a dark leather collar and a black T-shirt. Though right now he was wearing a longer pinestriped nightshirt that was specially designed not to hinder him when he walked. Not only that, but a night cap too. Few people knew that Nawaki liked to dress up his pig. Though everyone knew that Tai-Tai had a suit for formal occasions.

Grinning, Obito walked over to the sleeping boy's bed, and leaned over, and after a moment of thinking, slobbered on his finger and stuck it right in Nawaki's ear.

"AWWWW FUUUUUUUUCKKK!!"

"Time to get up Nawaki," Obito said mildly, still with Tai-Tai in his arms, though he put him down before he continued. "We have a big day ah-" He wasn't able to finish seeing as he was tackled full on by the much larger boy and flattened into the ground.

"Why the _hell_ did you do that you son of a bitch?!" Nawaki snarled, using his hands to pin Obito's arms above his head. Obito managed to keep his voice steady despite being _very_ aware of Nawaki's body heat...

"I wouldn't be able to get you up otherwise, we were up till dawn remember." The Toad Ninja growled, but got off (to Obito's slight disappointment) and walked over to his closet and pulled out his Jonin uniform. Despite being recommended more then once for the ANBU, he and his two kunoichi teamates Keiko and Kusanada, stubbornly wanted to remain at Jonin level. "Too much work" Nawaki had said, "I'll have time for the ANBU black ops. when I'm older."

Nawaki stalked into the bathroom, and Obito turned to amble towards the kitchen, Tai-Tai followed him.

When he got the the very large kitchen, he set about making an omlette. And fed the pig while he was at it.

"Ready for what I've got planned for you today?" Obito looked around to see Lord Jiraiya standing there with a small smirk on his face. "I'm always ready Lord Jiraiya," Obito said with a grin, "No challenge you put to me is too great." Lord Jiraiya laughed again. The much older man was obviously no longer on ninja duty, due to his missing left arm and gash across his throat that made his voice deep and hoarse.

The doorbell rang, and Jiraiya got up to go answer it. A few seconds later, Nawaki's teamates, red-headed Keiko and golden eyed Kusanada entered, both completely unsurprised at seeing Obito preparing himself a meal in a house that was not his.

Obito nodded at them (his mask in place at this point). Then as he set his finished omlette down and was getting a fork, he suddenly felt a little woozy.

"You ok Obito?" Keiko's soft concerned voice asked. Obito managed to nod, holding on to the counter for support. When the feeling passed, he looked up at Keiko, "Around ten thirty today, make sure your in the market ok?" Keiko looked startled, "You'll be needed. Trust me." Although used to these unexplained predictions, Keiko still looked uneasy. "Ok, fine," she said finally.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"OBITO!"

"Aw shit"

Obito swung around to see Kita storming towards him with the promise of great pain in her eyes. Why couldn't his visions show him useful stuff? Like when his friend or sister are going to catch him doing something that would put him in prison if he was older? Glancing at Nawaki, Obito realized suddenly that he wasn't there anymore.

That bastard! He ran off! Coward. Now he had to face his temperamental teammate all by his lonesome.

"Hey, what's up Kita?" He asked casually, covering his face with his mask.

She seemed to almost swell with fury; "What's up? WHAT'S UP?! IS THAT ALL YOU CAN FUCKING SAY?! YOU WERE PEEPING AGAIN WEREN'T YOU YOU PERVERT!!"

Obito coughed, "I was merely helping someone out with some research Kita, there's no need to get your fangs in a twist." Kita was practically snarling in rage, while she was continuing her rant, Obito reached into his bag and pulled out a round object.

"Hey, Kita, look." She stopped for a moment and made the fatal mistake of looking where Obito was indicating. Three seconds later, she collapsed. Obito shook his head, she fell for it everytime.

Obito was holding a small crystal ball, this was given to him by Nawaki, who said that it belonged to the Third Hokage. Whether this was true or not, it always worked well for Obito, he could use it to see what others are doing (though he refrained from using it for perverted means, he did have _some_ sense of decency) or to make others forget, like he was doing now with Kita. She'll wake up wondering what she was doing. Obito now just had to make Amaterasu swear to be silent.

Nawaki appeared just as Obito was finishing bribing the nin-dog.

"Yo," he said casually, the silver haired boy gave him a huffy look, "You ran off on me!" He said in a wounded voice. Nawaki shrugged, "What good would having her yell at me do? Y'know, it's too bad you won't let me flirt with her..." Obito shook his head, "We had a deal. Besides, you have all the other girls in the village, I'm sure you can survive without this one."

Nawaki shrugged again, "I also wanted to see what happened to the two poor souls." Obito looked at him with interest, "I'm willing to forgive you if you tell me what happened."

"Well, after they were thrown in, there was a lot of screeching, and the two were chased down the street by fifteen women, ten of them kunoichi. Their mothers are not going to be happy with them tonight. My mother threatened me with severe bodily harm if something like that were to ever happen to me again."

"My dad was too lazy to punish me for that time, he told me never to do it again, and that was it. Though Shino-sensei more then made up for it..."

"Pah, some bastards have all the luck. Dad laughed his ass off, Lee-sensei gave me three hundred pushups and three hundred laps around Konoha, and mom... well... never mind."

"By the way, aren't you three heading out tomorrow?"

"Yeah, Wind country, Keiko is excited, we're gonna be spending a couple months there, plenty of time for her to visit her family,"

"..."

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Kita's morning started out like it always did. She got up early to walk Amaterasu, she went home for breakfast. She was lectured by her father about boys and why she wasn't allowed dating until she was twenty one, she had her aunt Hana walk in and tell her dad that he was being overprotective. She went to go train with her sensei and her best, if very much uptight, friend. And so on and so forth.

Though today was slightly different. Seeing as Kita got her first shock when she looked at the mountain, all six Hokage's faces were colorfully painted. The Dog-nin was very much impressed. How do you pull a stunt like this off and get away with it?

Kita noticed that the Sixth Hokage's face was the most graffitied. This was probably the result of the Hokage's trouble making son. Kita couldn't honestly remember what his name was. Itchigo or something...?

Heh, whatever. After she finished her training, she went out and did stuff. Then she decided to look for her two friends. Running into that Uchiha kid, who's name she also couldn't remember, she asked him if he knew where her friends were. He said no, and got a little cheeky. Then paid for it immedietly. Kita just didn't take crap from anyone.

A little while later, she and Amaterasu was chased down the street by her scary grandmother Tsume. Which somehow resulted in a bunch of bulls been let loose, mud... and other things.

Kita was a champion tracker, but all Inuzuka's were well known for their tracking abilities. She wanted to break tradition, she wanted to become Hokage. She would sometimes daydream about becoming the first Inuzuka to become Hokage, the second Kunoichi to have her face on that mountain. That miffed her, women ninja's were every bit as good as male ones, why was there only one Kunoichi face on that mountain, and five male? Kita strove hard to master every Jutsu that she could. And not just the Inuzuka ones, Fang over Fang and such, but some elemental jutsu's, such as the groundhound jutsu. Kita wanted to one day learn the Rasengan, but Nawaki refused to teach her, and she had yet to ask Lord Jiraiya.

It was a little disheartening that her best friend, Hatake Rin, didn't have any faith in her, and she doubted the Obito really cared one way or another.

When night came around, Kita was sitting on top of a roof top staring thoughtfully at the mountain. "One day Amaterasu," Kita said dreamily, stroking her nin-dog's soft, silky back. There was a sudden swishing sound, followed by a couple a loud yelps and a thud. Kita leapt up in surprise and saw that the Hokage's son (Irichi...?) had tripped over her dog and had slammed his chin against a corner of the roof.

_Inner Kita: A 9.5 for an excellent chin dive! Though I'm going to take off two seeing as your diving board was my dog..._

"Watch where your going loser!" Kita snarled, grabbing the blong haired boy by the back of his collar and hauling him to his feet. He gave her a hurt look, but muttered an apology. The Dog-nin blinked, she didn't know the kid all that well, but she was pretty sure that he would have snapped back.

_Inner Kita: I wonder what's eating him?_

"What's eating you?" She asked bluntly, he blinked stupidly at her and shuffled his feet uncomfortably. "Nothing," He muttered, turning to leave. "Nothing my ass," Kita snorted, getting up to block his way, "You either tell me, or I'm going to punch you for kicking my dog." It took a while, but she managed to get the whole story out of him.

And while she was at it, she finally learned his name. Ichiro. Hmm, she was very close all the other times...

"Parents argue all the time," Kita said dismissivily, "You shouldn't take any of it seriously."

_Inner Kita: This coming from someone who only has a father..._

"And besides-"

"But they were arguing really badly, and-"

"DON'T INTERUPPT ME WHEN I'M FUCKING TALKING!!"

"... meep..."

**I'm gonna end it here, I don't want this chapter to be too long. And besides, if I want to push on with the plot, I have to get to the next chapter. Which won't be a repeat of the same day like the others have been. And Team Lee will be going to Suna! And there you'll meet the Sand Cousins (oh I'm sooo original XD) **

**I think I could have been more passionate on Kita's part, I wanted a girl (for once) to want to become Hokage, I considered Yumi, but then realized that Kita would have no important part of my story otherwise. And Rin is my least favorite OC I've made so far (like I said before, I should be shot) because she's so uptight, people like that make me nervous. I like to use the inner voices of the Kunoichi to outline the girl's personality, Rin is constantly battling hers, and Kita is more agreeable about it.**


	4. Team Lee

**Why I chose Lee to be the mentor of these three I don't honestly know. Just so yas people know, I am not ignorent about the deaths of Orochimaru and... wait... no... I won't believe that Jiraiya is dead until Masashi Kishimoto draws his dead body. So that Jiraiya is alive in my story is my way of saying that JIRAIYA IS STILL ALLLIIIVVVEEE!!**

Team Lee

Seventeen year old Mitarashi Kusanada sighed, her mother had gone out. Again. Got drunk at a bar. Again. And was now waking up to a hang over. Again. She probably wouldn't be well enough to see her off.

_Inner Kusanada: It's not like she'll want to anyway..._

And Kusanada will be gone for two whole months. Keiko was ecstatic, Suna was her original home after all, and most of her family lived there. Kusanada, on the other hand, really didn't have much of a family, her mother pretty much ignored her, with good reason. Her father had been a S-class criminal after all. And Anko had once said that she looked exactly like him. Which caused many people extreme uneasiness.

Around six in the morning Kusanada had her bags packed and all the essentials for three days camping (or maybe two and a half, the three of them were very fast) and a few days worth of cloths. Though they'd probably have to buy more clothes while they were there. Apparently the three of them were staying with the Kazekage, who was, conveniently, Keiko's father.

Sighing again, she pulled on her backpack and secured it on the front. Deciding that her mother would figure it out, Kusanada didn't bother with a note, she left into the cool morning air towards the gate where she and her teammates were suppose to meet up.

Nawaki, Keiko, and herself kept themselves at Jonin level, despite the fact that the three of them were offered to join the ANBU black ops. They were known as the third generation of "Prodigal Three" and were quite proud of this title.

"Kusanda!" Kusanda turned around and saw a tall man wearing a green jumpsuit and orange leg warmers running towards her with remarkable speed. "Lee-sensei," She said warmly, the golden-eyed girl practiced in the Lotus series martial arts, and spent a lot of her time with her sensei, and often his son, Liang. Cute little fellow.

"I will accompany you to the gates to see my youthful students off! Seeing as it will be quite some time before I see any of you again," He seemed almost dejected at this very thought. Lee-sensei was very devoted to his students, and was proud that his team gained such a high title so early in their lives. "Thank you Lee-sensei," Kusanada said, bowing respectfully. As much as she liked her sensei, she didn't sprout any proclamations of youth, that was pretty much were she drew the line.

The two of them walked to Konoha's gates together, chatting about their lessons, how Suna training differed from Konoha, and so on and so forth. It wasn't surprising that red headed Sabaku Keiko was there first. She stood impatiently as she waited for her two teammates to show so that they could get going. It had been a few months since she had last seen her mother, father, and little brother. As well as her two cousins, Haku, and Kimiko.

"Kusa, Lee-sensei," Keiko called out in a way of greeting. They returned the greeting and stood to wait for their final and lone male teammate. They didn't have to wait for long, a perverted fool he can sometimes be, he was not incompetent, he knew how to take things seriously... sometimes.

"Sorry," He said apologetically, "Just had to suffer through mom's lecture about respect and responsibility, you'd think I was seven instead of seventeen..." Kusanada laughed, "I don't blame her, seeing as you got yourself caught at the women's bath house-" He shook his head, "Whatever, lets get going if we want to get there sometime this week..."

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Hurry up!" Kusanada called back to her two teammates, she was far faster then either of them. "We're suppose to pace ourselves Madam Snake-face," Nawaki hollered back irritably. The large, white-haired boy was slower then both of them, and was several feet behind Keiko, who tried to stay in the exact middle. "Why?" She yelled, "Let's see if we can get there in just _two_ days."

"Crazy bitch,"

"Don't call Kusanada a bitch!"

"I didn't mean it Keiko,"

"Just don't!"

"Will both of you put a lid on it?"

"Why don't you just tell us to shut the fuck up Kusanada? It works better,"

"Probably only for illiterate morons such as yourself Nawaki,"

"Can we refrain from name calling please?"

"I'm hardly illiterate, women."

"Writing smut hardly counts."

The three of them continued on like this for several hours before they decided to stop for a short break. After an hour, they started off again, and restarted their constant bickering. Listening to them, you would never guess that the three of them were actually pretty close, or that Kusanada and Nawaki weren't actually aggressive, cold people.

"We wasted a whole hour!"

"A hour well spent, if your planning on ploughing on through the night."

"Will you two _please_ stop fighting!?"

"Alright, alright, don't start crying Kei-kei."

"_Don't call me Kei-kei Nawaki!!_"

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Nawaki sighed, neither Kusanada nor Keiko were the aggressive type of kunoichi, like the two Obito had to put up with, but they could still be hard to get along with. They reached the edge of the desert, and stopped for a bit before setting off across the sea of sand. A couple hours in, Nawaki couldn't help but speculate the difference between Fire Country and Wind Country. It was night, so they had the stars to guide them, and it was surprisingly chilly, but Nawaki was surprisingly good at adapting to many climates. The three of them were very much used to the desert heat, they preferred it to the frozen wastelands of Snow Country.

Keiko and Kusanada, both being Tai-jutsu specialists, Keiko with the soft fist and Kusanada with the lotus, were both considerably faster then he was. But he kept up a steady pace, determined not to be the one to slow them down. They ran single file, in the forest, Kusanada took lead, in the desert Keiko would. But during battle Nawaki would take lead and direct them however he could.

The three of them were lucky, they came across no sandstorms on their trip across the desert, or any deadly creature. Nawaki almost wished that they did, it sure would have made the trip far more interesting, they compromised with this by bickering constantly with each other, mostly to fill the dead silence that the dark desert offered. They stopped and rested for a couple of hours, they were still quite a ways from Suna, and the sun was beginning to rise up over the horizon.

"Are we there yet?" Nawaki whined mockingly, hoping to infuriate one of the girls into a conversation, they were quiet for a while and the toad ninja was almost desperately bored.

"A few more hours," Keiko's tired voice answered, they always push themselves to the absolutely limit whenever they head to Suna. Even Kusa was slowing down. Nawaki was proud that despite being the slowest on the team, he had the most stamina and could go longer then either of them.

A while later, Nawaki could see Suna rising up from the horizon, they still had another hour to go, but with their goal so close, they sped up, now non-verbally challenging each other.

"Suna up ahead! Starting to slow down Kusa."

"Your ability to point out the obvious definitely makes me see why people think that you'd make a good Hokage."

"Sticks and stones Kusa."

"Shut it toad boy,"

"Same to you Madam Snake Face."

"Name calling **bad**!"

They approached the intimidating wall that surrounded the village. Keiko waved at a few ninja on the wall and, since the three of them were unmistakable, even from a distance, the many ninja waved back.

Fifteen minutes later, they stopped outside one of the massive gates. They were greeted by Keiko's aunt and uncle, Lord Kazekage was in a meeting, and won't be out for several hours. And her mother was teaching at the academy at the moment and won't be available for a while. Nawaki could sense his teammates disappointment, "Cheer up Keiko, that gives us enough time to get cleaned up and get settled," He said tactfully. She nodded, and the five of them headed towards the Kazekage's tower.

"It's nice that you three will be here for a whole two months!" Temari (who should be at the same meeting as Gaara) said, draping an arm around the redhead's shoulder, "And maybe you'll bring Gaara out of his grouchy mood," Kankuro (who should also be at the same meeting as Gaara) said, adjusting his long clan robes he was now forced to wear. They were a white instead of black, he wasn't wearing his bunraku outfit, or facepaints.

Nawaki always liked Suna, it wasn't as colorful as Konoha, but he liked the basic structure of the village, it was like a maze that he always enjoyed exploring. And plenty could be said about the night life, though the girls here were considerably tougher then the Leaf Village. That's alright, he liked tough.

They reached the tower (easily the tallest building in the village) and walked inside out of the insanely hot sun. Nawaki often wondered how people could live with this heat every day of their lives. It was no wonder that a lot of sand shinobi were grouchy, uptight assholes. Not that he would say that to any of their faces...

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Keiko shouldn't have been surprised that her father and mother were busy, but she had been hoping that they would have been able to get away long enough to see her. Aunt Temari's husband wasn't able to get out of the council meeting, and Uncle Kankuro's wife Hanabi, also was teaching at the academy.

The red head Leaf Jonin was about to ask about her cousins and her little brother, when the door to the Kazekage's tower flew opened, and three young genin ran out as fast as their legs could carry them.

"I never thought that I'd see the day when we weren't even _allowed_ inside the tower!"

"It's twice as sad for me, _I_ live there!."

"What a drag, why did we even bother?"

The three twelve year olds skidded to a stop right in front of them. Two of them looked stricken as they stared up at their parents.

Kankuro crossed his arms and stared down at his daughter with a raised eyebrow, "Matsuri just told me that you didn't turn up for training, care to explain Kimiko?" Most people mistook Kimiko as a boy at first glance because she wore the same bunraku outfit and facepaints as her father did. Not many people actually knew what she really looked like. Her puppets, Kurasu and Kiroari sat heavily on her back. Kimiko's pale lilac eyes looked almost guilty, something only her father could make her do.

"We had other things on our minds," She said coolly. Temari shook her head, "Haku?" She addressed a boy who was a spitting image of his father, except with bright blond hair and green eyes.

"Eh, too troublesome."

The final boy, a dark bluish haired boy with pale eyes, shrugged carelessly after his cousin's predictable response. Keiko smiled and leaned over to hug her younger brother. "Arashi!" He wiggled out of her grip, "Eww! Sister germs!" Kimiko giggled, "Nice to see ya Keiko! It's been a while!" The young puppet master, not being the touchy feely type, didn't bother with a hug, just a light punch on the shoulder. Haku shrugged and yawned, "How long you gonna be here?" he asked. The red head smiled, "Two whole months! I really must thank Lord Hokage again when I get home." Arashi tried hard not to smile, as aloof as he tried to act, he adored his older sister.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

A few hours later, Keiko, her friends, and her family (excluding her father and her Uncle Shikamaru) were sitting down for dinner at the Sabaku compound. Her Uncle Kankuro (who was a surprisingly good cook) prepared the meal. As proof of the Sabaku wealth that they had sea food, something that is extremely hard to come by in the desert, and therefor is extremely expensive. Yet despite their wealth, there was no servants or cooks. This had been complained about plenty by Kimiko.

They finished the meal laughing and joking with each other. Keiko loved Suna, strangely enough, she always felt more at home in this harsh climate then she did back in the more prosperous environment of Fire Country. They were just cleaning up (Haku, Arashi, and Kimiko disappeared mysteriously) when the door opened and her father staggered inside.

She was about to greet him, when he pointed accusingly at his guilty faced siblings, "You! You two were suppose to be at that meeting! If I have to sit there for hours and listen to people drone on and on than you should too!" He moved irritably forwards, letting a tired looking man with black hair inside. Uncle Shikamaru always looked tired, but right now, he looked ready to collapse.

Gaara finally noticed his daughter, "Keiko, it's good your here. I would have much preferred to have greeted you then sit at that meeting. Speaking of which, the council wondered why our Sabaku Clan Leader and our Sand Ambassador wasn't there," he gave the other two sand siblings a vindicative glare, the two exchanged another guilty look, but didn't say anything.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

That night, Kankuro and Temari stood on rooftop of Kankuro's home. It was a much finer night then it usually was, and the sky was perfectly clear, the stars glittering brightly in the dark, slightly windy sky.

"Who knew we would get this far," Kankuro remarked, eyes tracing the constellations in the sky. Temari smiled, not needing to ask what he meant, "Yeah, such a big difference from the young punks we were to-"

"-the old punks were are now," Kankuro interrupted her playfully, grinning at her. Temari lightly whacked him in the back of the head. Some things change, others don't.

Kankuro chuckled, but leaned against the railing, now looking down at the village. Temari, however, looked at him. When he was younger, his likeness to the father they both hated was a shock to most. Now it was absolutely stunning. A living replica of the Fourth Kazekage, Temari had heard more then one council member walk away commenting on how it seemed that the Fourth Kazekage was back in the council.

As of most shinobi, Kankuro had found it hard to switch from the action filled life of a ninja, to the less exciting, but no less dangerous, life of politics. When he finally accepted that he was rightfully a Clan Leader, he decided to join the council. But not without regret. He was no longer allowed on missions, his depression was evident the first few years of accepting his position. He devoted most of his time training his daughter, who early showed signs of being able to use chakra strings, and as a result, adored her.

But she, Temari, was able to travel to other countries and saw action far more often then either of her brothers. She could sense their warrior's longing for action when she reported her missions. She actually felt sorry for both of them.

Shikamaru, never being one for action, was... not happy exactly, but content with his life in the council. He gave excellent advice, and made good friends with Temari's sensei, Baki. Temari, Kankuro, and Gaara's old sensei was singularly the most politically powerful person in Suna, and had incredible influence. Temari admired him greatly because he was able to stay Baki even though he too had sunk into the poisonous waters of politics.

When she had Haku (Shikamaru named him, he said he got the name from one of the stories Naruto told him) she was delighted with the boy's intellgents. But slightly dismayed when the baby showed signs of inheriting his fathers personality. Looks like that laziness was was heredy after all...

Fierce Kimiko was born a month later, screaming at the top of her tiny lungs. Though looking exceptionally like her mother, she too had her father's personality. Rough, insolent, and a bit of a bully, but nontheless talented, she was a mirror image of Kankuro.

Arashi born two months after, he also had Hyuuga features. Though he didn't seem to be able to use the Byakugan in any way. Unlike his older sister, Keiko, who proved able to use it when she was a mere four years old. The Hyuuga's wanted to raise her in Konoha, to cultivate that gift that the girl had. Temari was slightly amused that her young niece was probably the only redheaded in the Hyuuga compound.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard a slight rustling below them, a sound like a window being opened as quietly as possible.

"Oh, looks like our dear innocent children are sneaking out," Kankuro observed dryly, as three dark shapes ran off into the night, sniggering slightly, proud of their cleverness.

"Should we go after them?" Temari turned and saw Shikamaru ambling lazily towards them. "Nah, Matsuri will be sure to have them up early tomorrow. And she'll make them suffer for skipping training today, add a loss of a good nights sleep, and they should get what they deserve." The Sand ambassador said with a nasty grin.

"Suna love eh?"

**Omg, this is shorter then the other ones have been DX ah well, I have a lot of other fics to take care of... I planned of making Kusanada a lot sweeter then I portrayed her, but she turned out with a bit of Orochimaru harshness... and it can be noted that there is not much inner voice on the two kunoichi...**

**And just to point out, I chose the name Kusanada for Orochimaru's daughter because I just happen to read the story of Susano when he fought the dragon, whose name as Yamata no Orochi. And for those who don't know the myth... will have to read it somewhere else, because I don't feel like explaining it. Anyway, the name of the maiden that Susano eventually took as his own was named Kusanada-hime (rice paddy princess) which makes a whole lot of sense... really...**

**Next up, Team Matsuri! ('bout time I had a kunoichi sensei don't ya think?)**


End file.
